Wednesday, September 12, 2012

monday's new adventure

Monday morning I went to a legit MOMS bible study for the first time.

I feel like this automatically means I've entered a new phase of motherhood.

I remember my mom doing this when I was younger. When I thought of my mom's bible study, I thought of women who wear lots of Brighton jewelry and smell like makeup. And here I am joining that club. (Nothing against Brighton jewelry or smelling like makeup. I'm just painting a picture for you based on my elementary-aged mind.)

I'm excited to be doing something like this though. Right now, it's a little tricky
having it back-to-back with Sundays. Both days are now nursery days and
off-schedule days. But I know that I need a break each week and Duke
will benefit greatly from being around other kids consistently.

My friend, Kelsey, is the one that told Megan and me about it. We decided it would be a good thing for us to do together.

(Remember that time when we were young and wild and only had Cooper in the mix? Crazy.)

After we dropped the kids off in the nursery, we found ourselves in
the bathroom blinking back tears and trying to compose ourselves. It
wasn't even the first time for me to leave Duke in a nursery, but it was
just a little different. It was a new place for me too. In general, I
was nervous for the both of us. We walked out of the one-person bathroom only to find a woman waiting to use it. I'm sure she thought we were crazy.

As we were walking out of the nursery area, I heard a young mom say to a nursery worker, "I don't mean to
be that mom, but ..." I wanted to yell, "Girl! Don't you worry! We're those moms too, so come play with us!"

Duke actually did better than I had planned. He didn't cry when I dropped him off and he wasn't crying when I picked him up. He didn't take a morning nap at all so I was a bit concerned about his grouchiness, but he seemed to be okay. He fell asleep on the way home so we sat in the driveway for bit so he could get a 30ish minute nap before eating lunch.

It was nice getting to meet some other moms around my age and get a chance to "start over." (Not like I-did-drugs-and-I-need-a-new-beginning start over, but I-get-to-introduce-myself-to-people-I-don't-know start over.) I was talking to Megan and Kelsey about this the other day. As moms, sometimes we just need to talk about something other than poopy diapers and feeding schedules. On Monday, people asked me questions about me. Where do you live? What are your hobbies? Tell me about your husband. I think stay-at-home moms long for conversations like this with other people. It reminds us that yes, in fact, we do have conversational skills, we can still form sentences, and we are interesting people.

So, anyway, that's a new little adventure for us. I think it'll just get easier and more fun as I continue going. And they serve yummy breakfast each week. I mean, let's be honest. Anywhere that provides childcare and breakfast is where I want to be.

Exactly! Sometimes I'll find myself stumbling over words or putting together odd sentences when talking to my husband. (He's crossing his fingers I'll be able to teach our son correct English someday. ;)) But, thankfully, I spoke normally this day!